Just a place to share some thoughts

OTR Links 08/07/2012

“The Mars Curiosity rover has landed successfully, and one of the promo videos “7 minutes of terror” brags about there being 500,000 lines of code. It’s a complicated problem, no doubt. But that is a lot of code, surely there was a pretty big programming effort behind it. Does anyone know anything about this project? I can only imagine it’s some kind of embedded C.”

“WordPress is not just a platform to publish blogs, or small business websites. It is powerful enough to be used by newspaper websites, magazine sites, universities and colleges. WordPress can also be used as a Learning Management System to sell online courses and offer online classes.”

“We’re probably somewhere in the middle, and for us, that’s a good thing. We are eager but judicious in latching on to new tools and trends (as anyone who has visited our straightforward Facebook page knows). On Twitter, we have benefited enormously from the innovative thinkers and generous sharers who have introduced us to eye-opening concepts, articles, and resources. In these few months, we’ve progressed professionally by leaps and bounds. Here are 10 ways that Twitter has helped make us better teachers:”

“Digital curation has grown rapidly on the Internet and there has been strong uptake in all fields of education. Many academics see curation of their subject matter expertise as a passion to be shared with their students and similarly interested people via the Internet. This newsletter will introduce the concept of academic digital curation and explain how to use one of the available tools to start your curation collection.”

“I am still in the process of getting my classroom set up for the new school year and will be sharing some of my classroom set up and arrangements with you as soon as I can get my act together. In the meantime, I thought I would share some ideas that worked very well for me last year….”

“All the conversations about technology and education have lead to 1:1, and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives. Each concept has its benefits and challenges, which creates a spirited debate among educators. Add to this debate the ever expanding list of educational apps, programs and services being developed for teachers, students, parents and administrators, and you begin to feel the urgency to innovate in your school. Before you take the plunge consider these five essential questions:”

“This post is like the week in review post I publish here every Sunday evening except that this one contains web tools that, because of my time constraints, I have not reviewed before. Below is a list of some of the best new web tools I came across in different educational blogs and websites in the course of last week. All of these tools have an educational value and can be used for a variety of learning and teaching purposes. Our aim is to help you get the maximum from web 2.0 technologies and leverage their potential to your classroom.”

“Digital citizenship is a key component of the technology and media literacy. We do not teach our students how to be good citizens in the real physical world but how they can be good netizens of the online world as well.Today’s learning requires alot of use of technology and most imprtant of all, our students are using technology on a daily basis- text messaging, blogging, Facebooking, Twittering, watching videos, gaming and networking. They live in two different but interconnected worlds. What they do online can have a severe repercussions on their real life if not properly instructed on digital safety issues and this is where digital citizenship fits in.”

While parents may spend more time worrying about their kids being terrorized by text, tweet, Facebook, or Formspring, new research suggests that cyberbullying “is a low-prevalence phenomenon, which has not increased over time and has not created many ‘new’ victims and bullies, that is, children and youth who are not also involved in some form of traditional bullying.”

“Last week, Microsoft officially launched the beta version of Outlook.com, their new web email service. While the company’s previous Hotmail service is still sticking around, Microsoft is actively encouraging its users to consider transferring over to the new Outlook.com.”

“Hotmail is your e-mail friend, right? And by now you probably know that Microsoft has rebranded Hotmail as Outlook.com (see the official blogpost here) in an effort to compete with Google Mail (Gmail). Hotmail was one of the first web-based email services and is still world’s largest e-mail service with over 350 million users, according to comScore (June 2012). “Hot..”, err, “Outlook” is better than you think and is perhaps the only Internet brand that has redefined itself several times.”

“The Mars Rover’s direct-to-Earth data rate peaks at 32kbits/sec. In off-peak periods, the rate is as low as 0.5kbits/sec. As for latency, the round-trip distance is currently just under 28 light minutes, or roughly a light half-hour.”

“Whenever any of us want to look out for something, the first thing that comes to our mind to give us the answer is none but Google. Beyond being the most preferred search engine, Google has committed itself to another aspect too. It’s the commitment of showing things on Street View as much as possible. In fact, it hasn’t even spared the bottom of a ravine to show it up to you.”

“One of the complex sites contains a distinct, four-sided, truncated, pyramidal shape that is approximately 140 feet in width. This site contains three smaller mounds in a very clear formation, similar to the diagonal alignment of the Giza Plateau pyramids.”

“If you are curious about Mars exploration, this series of activities can help your students learn more about Mars and how we explore worlds beyond our own. These project-based lessons are inquiry-based and standards-aligned, and can be tailored to meet the needs of any classroom. “

“Explore Mars heads the Get Curious campaign. The organization will provide educational information, mission highlights and laboratory findings as they come in before the landing and for several months after the landing to educate the public about the mission.”